PASSION AND FASHION
EWAN MCGREGOR cuts a dash in a glamorous biopic of1970s designer Halston
FREQUENTED BY THE likes of David Bowie, Diana Ross, Andy Warhol and Grace Jones, legendary nightclub Studio 54 was the place to be seen for the glamorous set in 1970s New York.
With only the coolest people granted entry, another Studio 54 regular was fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick – known simply as Halston – who blazed a trail in the 1970s and 1980s with his must-have clothes.
Now, Halston’s story is told in a new Netflix series from producer Ryan Murphy, with Ewan Mcgregor playing the title role.
Raised in Indiana, Halston started out as a milliner, rising to international fame by designing the pillbox hat worn by Jacqueline Kennedy at JFK’S presidential inauguration in 1961. By the 1970s, he was running his own fashion house and designing clothes for Hollywood stars.
‘Like Halston, I grew up in Indiana, surrounded by cornfields and churches, and I always heard about this man who had gotten out and gone on to bigger, glamorous things,’ says Murphy.
‘He was always a big figure in my mind. He was a representation of somebody who had come from humble beginnings and had gone on to do something incredible with his life – and I was always moved by him.’
The series sees Halston battle a hostile takeover that threatens his business, and also follows his life as he parties at Studio 54 with his glamorous friends, including Liza Minnelli (Krysta Rodriguez).
Also in the cast is Rory Culkin, who plays rising film director Joel Schumacher (St Elmo’s
Fire, The Lost Boys) while Vera Farmiga is party queen Adele, and Gian Franco Rodriguez plays window dresser Victor Hugo, who was
Halston’s partner for several years.
Tragically, Halston tested positive for HIV in 1988 and died two years later from an Aids-related illness at the age of 57.
‘Halston used drugs and sex as a release from the pressure, so we made sure to dramatise that,’ says Murphy. ‘The one big love affair of his life was with Victor. He really did try to make a romantic go of that until Victor let him know that that wasn’t going to happen.
‘Once that happened, he just became an out-of-control personality. The tragedy of Halston was that he died pretty much alone – exiled not just from the fashion world but from the entire world.’